Shved, Khimki send Madrid to first defeat

Khimki Moscow Region registered its first road win in the 2017-18 Turkish Airlines EuroLeague by downing Real Madrid 80-86 in the Spanish capital on Thursday. Both teams now have a 4-1 records in the standings, leaving Olympiacos Piraeus as the only undefeated team left in the competition. Alexey Shved paced the winners with 20 points. James Anderson added 16, Anthony Gill had 12, Malcolm Thomas 11 and Stefan Markovic dished 8 assists for Khimki. Luka Doncic led Madrid with 12 points, Fabien Causeur and Jeffery Taylor and Gustavo Ayon each scored 10 for Madrid. Ayon added 10 rebounds for a double-double. In a back-and-forth game, Facu Campazzo gave Madrid a 69-68 edge early in the fourth quarter, but Shved and Anderson stepped up in crunch time to give Khimki a well-deserved road win.

Anderson got Khimki going with a layup, Gill added a jump hook and Shved followed a driving basket with a triple for a 7-9 lead. Anderson and Gill kept pacing the visitors, but a layup by Dino Radoncic ignited an 8-2 run that Ayon capped with an alley-oop layup for a 15-15 tie. Thomas followed a jumper with a big slam, getting help from Shved and Thomas Robinson to push Khimki ahead, 20-23. Free throws by Rudy Fernandez and Felipe Reyes got Madrid within 23-25 after 10 minutes. Reyes took over with a three-point play, but Anderson and Markovic each struck from downtown in an 0-8 run that gave Khimki a 26-33 margin. Ayon scored down low, but Thomas and Markovic made it a double-digit game, 28-38. Shved scored again, but a tip-in but Taylor ignited a 9-0 run in which Doncic had 5 points to bring Madrid within 37-40. A three-point play by Shved and free throws by Markovic made it 39-45 at halftime.

Gill dunked in traffic right after the break, but Ayon and Anthony Randolph fueled a 9-0 run highlighted by Jeffery Taylor's reverse slam for a 48-47 Madrid lead. Jenkins and Gill rescued Khimki, fueling a 0-9 run to give the visitors a 48-56 margin. Jenkins stayed on fire, getting help from Robinson for a 52-61 score. Campazzo and Jonas Maciulis tried to change things for Madrid, but another three-pointer by Shved kept Khimki way ahead, 59-66, after 30 minutes. A tip-in by Fernandez and three-pointers by Maciulis and Campazzo put Madrid back ahead, 69-68, with over seven minutes left. It didn't last long, however, as Shved followed a triple with a layup to spark a 0-10 run, which Anderson capped with a bomb from downtown for a 69-78 Khimki lead. Maciulis, Ayon and Campazzo stepped up and a three-pointer by Jaycee Carroll got Madrid as close as 80-82 with 48.8 seconds left. Doncic missed from beyond the arc and Anderson sealed the outcome from the foul line.

Head Coaches

LASO, PABLO

Real Madrid

"First of all, congratulations to Khimki for the win. I believe that it was a balanced game in many aspects of it, in which we didn't do well. We made a lot of mistakes and paid a high price for them. Trailing almost all the way made it difficult for us to have several consecutive good moments and when we did it, we fell again, making mistakes that we have to fix as a team if we want to compete at this level. Obviously, I have to give credit to Khimki, which has a great team, very versatile players, very mobile, able to score, and it was difficult to control them. Losing at home in the EuroLeague is tough, but that's it. We know it is a long regular season and if you want to win, you need to play well, because opponents are always very strong, as Khimki proved today, getting a well-deserved win that must help us get better in the future. Defense has to be a team effort and I am not worried much about individuals playing defense. Jeff [Taylor] did the job he was asked to do and made two or three mistakes, which Shved punished. In general, he did a good job, just as we asked him to do. He probably did some of the best stuff we did in the game tonight. I am more worried about defense, in general, because they hurt us in some of our defensive rules. We have to make clear that we made mistakes tonight. We lacked being solid, especially on offense, but also on defense, making clear mistakes. We lacked patience on offense, passing the ball, playing as a team. We didn't set good screens, didn't roll enough, didn't give extra passes and only had 5 assists in the first half. They are a strong, physical team, very good in one-on-one opportunities, and we needed to move them a bit, but didn't do it. We played better in transition than in five-on-five offenses and didn't have good shooting percentages, not good enough to win the game."

BARTZOKAS, GEORGIOS

Khimki Moscow Region

"It was a great game for us. We know that winning here is not easy. I think Real Madrid lost for the first game this year in all competitions, so we need to be happy for one night and believe in our team. For us, it was the first win on the road after the game against Olympiacos, in which we didn't play well. Today we were solid in both ends, defensively and offensively. When we controlled a bit the rhythm of the game without turning the ball over, because if I remember well, we had 11 turnovers in the first half, we managed to win the game, having patience on offense and finding the open man. As I said, everybody has to compromise that, in this new format of EuroLeague, winning or losing is part of the game. Last year, Fenerbahce won the title having a lot of losses in the regular season. I don't know how many years it will take for fans, clubs' organization and journalists, but everybody has to compromise with the idea that winning or losing is a part of this difficult competition. Even in the local leagues, especially in Spain - which is so difficult, you can lose everywhere - having games every two, three days in this level. Anyway, we are happy. We have four victories and one loss in the EuroLeague, but have a very difficult schedule, playing against CSKA in our home court on Monday in a VTB League game.So, congratulations to our players. Let's analyze what we did well and wrong, and let's go on."

Players

REYES, FELIPE

Real Madrid

"Right now, I am not thinking about being the EuroLeague's all-time top rebounder, but that we lost a game in which we played really bad. If we had done things a little bit better, we would have won. I am happy being the EuroLeague's top rebounder again, but when you lose a game, everything else, including individual records, don't really matter much. We had a terrible game and they played much better than us. We were bad on offense and they took advantage of it to get a road win due to our bad work. We have to do things better and get back on the winning track."

JENKINS, CHARLES

Khimki Moscow Region

"It’s always tough to come here and win. They are a really good team; they have a lot of great shooters and everything. They are always one of the best teams in Europe. For us it was important to just make it a one-shot game for them. Even though they got a lot of offensive rebounds, in the second half we were able to rebound better and make shots. We executed, we didn’t just come down and fire any shots, we made them play full offenses and we capitalized and I think that was important. As far as me, in the second half I just stopped caring about not being physical. In the beginning I started the game thinking I wanted to back off and ended up getting two fouls. In the second half I didn’t care any more and I wanted to be as aggressive as I can on defense and make good things happen. I think we played well in transition and were able to get a win."

SHVED, ALEXEY

Khimki Moscow Region

"This is an important win for us. Everybody knows how hard it is to play here, in this arena, with these fans who help them. They had 4-0 before this game so when we came here, we know it was going to be a hard game. We are happy to win this game. I always try to help my team and give 100%. I had a nice game today, but maybe somebody else can score [next time]. We just play as a team. We won, and this is important."